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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Daring Bakers' Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake



Gosh, this month's challenge hosted by Sunita of Sunita's world seemed so simple but in fact there were many factors necessary to make this cold cake successful. For one, patience had to be in place, in regards to freeze, refreeze, freeze, and refreeze the whipping cream to turn it into Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream. And not to mention freezing the Hot Fudge Sauce that create the boundary between the two ice cream flavors.



Another important factor was the freezer. I happened to have a not-so-powerful one that even leaving the ice cream to freeze for 5 hours did not make the texture firm and hard. It was just in between soft and firm. The fact of setting it into the maximum coldness didn't seem to make any difference. Time was luxurious then, and I did not have it sufficiently.

So the overnight freezing only resulted in a presentable Swiss roll ice cream cake, good enough to take photograph, but still not hard enough - or that I am not convinced enough - to risk cutting through it in order to show the ice cream layers. So I guess I need more time to leave it int the freezer and show the internal layers in my upcoming post. So this is what I can show for now...



The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Singing In The Rain



Many years back a closed friend invited me to see the musical "Singing in the Rain" staged at the newly completed Esplanade Theatre in Singapore. I was so amazed with the dancing, singing and especially the rain they managed to make pouring thoroughly on the stage while the actor was singing and dancing.



As mesmerized as I was to the stage musical, I went directly to look for the DVD and it was hard to find since it was a classic. After a long search I finally got it and enjoyed the movie very much. Replaying the movie a few times, I had grown to like Gene Kelly, the acrobatic dancer-singer-star-choreographer.



"Singing in the Rain" was directed by Gene Kelly himself and Stanley Donen and released in the year 1952 by MGM. This joyous film is very charming, up-beat, and a completely entertaining experience with great songs, lots of flashbacks, wonderful dances, casting and story. No wonder I didn't stop there and continued to get "An American in Paris", another Gene Kelly's movie.



As the rain season is back in Bangkok, and the rain is in fact pouring heavily as I am typing this post, flashbacks of "Singing in the Rain" scenes came back like an unexpected returning good friend and I suddenly long to see that movie again.